𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏 | 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂'𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝘚𝘦𝘦 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘐𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭

"ALL RIGHT, ARGENT. YOU BETTER have a good fucking reason for dragging me out of bed on a Saturday morning when I could be eating ice-cream in bed."

Allison's eyebrows raise in amusement as she glances to her friend. "It's one in the afternoon," she says.

Charlotte scoffs. "And your point is?"

She receives laughs from the two on either side of her. The Martin twins had been asked to join Allison after receiving a rather vague text message an hour earlier. There wasn't much convincing needed for Charlotte, as her day was either doing this, or tailing Jackson around town to make sure he didn't go exposing Scott. She didn't need any extra time with Jackson Whittemore.

Lydia shrugs. "I'm kinda with Lottie on this. I mean, when you said you needed to stop for an errand before shopping-"

Charlotte points to her sister. "Now that is a good reason to get out of bed."

The strawberry blonde nods. "See! I wasn't expecting a five mile hike in the woods!" She grimaces as she looks down to her feet. "I would've worn more appropriate shoes..."

A laugh leaves her mouth as Charlotte eyes her sister's heeled boots. She's grateful her only shoes are Converse. Considerably more comfortable. The girls continue walking through the Beacon Hills Preserve in silence, before Allison hesitantly speaks up, touching on a topic that is sensitive to both of the siblings. "Oh, before I forget. Lydia, I wanted to ask you if you're okay with something... Jackson invited me to the winter formal."

Charlotte's eyes widen in shock. Well, she didn't expect that at all. Her head snaps over to her sister. Lydia thickly swallows and tries to remain calm. "He did?" she queries quietly.

"Uh huh. Just as friends, though. But I wanted to make sure you're okay with it first."

"Sure." Lydia's eyes move back to Allison's figure as she adds, "I mean as long as it's just friends."

The girl with cocoa hair picks up her pace, walking slightly ahead of the twins. "Well, yeah. I mean, it's not like I would take him into Coach's office in the middle of lacrosse practice to make out with him or anything."

"Burn," Charlotte mutters. She apologetically smiles upon receiving a glare from her sister. Yeah, that conversation between them had been fun. Whilst Allison storms ahead, leading them further into the woods, the siblings linger behind. "Dee, are you sure you're okay with this?"

"No!" Lydia hisses to her. She sighs. "Obviously I'm not. But I can't really say that to her without sounding like a bitch, can I?"

Charlotte frowns. "True... Especially after the whole Scott thing in the office, which was totally not-" She shuts her mouth at Lydia's pointed look. "Yeah, okay, sorry. Just... Let me know if you want another punch."

The girl's mood brightens up a little, and she widely grins at the offer. "Oh, you just want to add another to your list."

"I've already got two in less than a month," she sighs happily. "And those two were both the greatest moments and achievements of my life."

Lydia loudly laughs this time, and Allison turns around with furrowed brows. "What's so funny?"

"Dreaming about punching Jackson again," Lydia calls out.

The brunette grins. "Of course you are."

"You wouldn't understand! You have to have all that hate and rage first, then actually physically hit them. Then once you've done that, you can taunt me about it."

The girls lock eyes and all three break into laughter.

With the atmosphere around them considerably less tense than earlier, the trio continue walking for another five minutes until Allison stops and drops her bag down. Charlotte tilts her head to the side. "Okay, you've kept us waiting long enough. I have to ask. What's in the big, black bag?"

Allison smiles as she unzips it. The twins mimic the other's expression of shock as the girl pulls out a large bow with arrows. "Holy shit," Lydia whispers.

Charlotte stares as her friend screws on an arrowhead. As she nocks the arrow, the blonde finally asks, "What does the special arrow thing do?"

Allison shrugs, just as clueless as the others. "No idea. I guess we're about to find out." The girl draws the string back, aims the weapon, and releases the arrow into the air.

They all watch as it hits the centre of a tree trunk. A large explosion follows as soon as the arrow makes contact, and sparks surround the area where it had pierced through the bark.

"What the fuck was that?" Lydia quietly says, looking to her sister in alarm.

However, Charlotte isn't internally panicking about the arrow. She's curious and extremely worried for an entirely different reason. Where the hell did Allison get it from?

"I don't know," Allison answers, her eyes still glued onto the tree.

"How come you never told us you could do archery?"

Allison sets the bow on the ground and smiles at the blonde. "I used to enter competitions when I was a kid. Stopped after a while as it was getting a bit too competitive."

Lydia crosses her arms and narrows her eyes. "Where the fuck did you get that thing?"

At least one of them was able to ask the question. A frown appears on Charlotte's lips as Allison responds with, "I found it in the garage; it was in the trashcan."

She rolls her eyes. "Okay, firstly, what were you doing going through the trash can? And secondly, a single pointy thing all alone and you didn't think that it was weird?"

Allison smiles at the sisters. "My dad is a weapons dealer." They stare back at her with wide eyes. "Legally!" she quickly adds. "Legal weapons dealer." Charlotte just about scoffs. Now that's a good cover. "So it isn't weird to find stuff like that just lying around. I guess I was just curious."

Lydia slowly nods. "Uh huh. Well then. I've had enough violence in the last few weeks to last a lifetime. Can we please go now?"

"Yeah, I second that," Charlotte says. "If you have any more lethal weapons, can we try them out another time? I'm hungry." Just on cue, her stomach quietly rumbles.

Allison laughs. "I guess I owe you some food." Lydia clears her throat. "And a shopping trip." The siblings break into grins.

The Argent stands up to go over to grab the arrow but is stopped by her friend. "I'll get it," Charlotte offers. "You put the bow thing away in its wrapping paper." She takes her time as she walks over to the tree and pulls the arrow forcefully out. The silence and the moment alone gives her time to realise that Allison most likely did not find that by coincidence. She sighs. It was definitely left there for her to find it. And the more she thinks about it, Allison is getting closer and closer to the supernatural, even though she isn't aware of it. 

Suddenly, something similar to a twig snapping reaches her ears. Her eyes dart between the clusters of trees, trying to pick out what had caused it. Lydia and Allison seem to have heard as well. All three of them are suddenly hyper aware of their surroundings.

"Lottie," Lydia calls out, her tone wavering with fear. As soon as her sister is back with them, she grabs onto her hand tightly. 

Allison takes another few seconds searching the dense environment, then shoves the bow to the strawberry blonde. Seeing the alarm etched onto Lydia's face at being tasked with something so daunting, Charlotte plucks it out of her hands and receives a small smile in gratitude. "Hold this," Allison instructs them. "Just... stay here."

"Allison, where are you going?"

"I thought I heard something," she replies.

"We heard something, too!" Lydia loudly whispers back.

"So I want to find out what that 'something' is. It's probably nothing."

Charlotte takes a deep breath. Little did either of them know that there's currently a murderous Alpha werewolf freely walking around Beacon Hills, no longer being confined to the hospital until nightfall. "But what if that nothing turns into something, and that something is dangerous?" she retorts.

Allison glances back to them and motions to the bow. "Shoot it," she says.

She shakes her head in disbelief. "How the fuck am I meant to shoot it?"

Ten agonising minutes pass before Allison finally returns to them. Throughout those ten minutes, there had been several occasions where Charlotte thought she might have to improvise learning how to shoot an arrow. Luckily, they had all been birds.

"Well? What was it?"

Allison shakes her head with a smile. "Scott," she tells them.

"I'm sorry, Scott?" Charlotte repeats.

"Yeah... He was following me."

Charlotte continues to stare at her. If Scott's goal is to look like a stalker, boy is he heading in the right direction.

»»———-　　———-««

After a late lunch and a brief shopping trip like promised, Charlotte is called to the Stilinski household for a debrief meeting. She gathers it's to do with whatever they were doing in regard to Jackson. She opens the unlocked front door.  "I'm gracing you with my presence, boys!" Silence. Her eyes narrow. "I know you're here, Stiles! The Jeep's parked out front." She jogs up the stairs to his bedroom and knocks on the closed door. When there's no response again, she slowly creaks it open to discover both boys are fast asleep. She rolls her eyes. "Hello?" she yells.

Stiles quickly jumps awake at the interruption, and Scott soon follows. The former shakes his head vigorously and yawns. "Oh, hey, Charlie..." His eyebrows furrow. "What are you doing here?"

She looks at him with incredulity. "You called me."

Scott rubs his eyes. "Right! Yes."

The girl nods, then remembers what else he had been doing today. "No, wait." Scott grimaces. It's clear he knows what's about to be asked. "What were you doing following us in the woods?"

Stiles turns to him and shakes his head in disappointment. "Was Jackson not enough for you?"

The werewolf sheepishly smiles. "I returned her 'stolen' necklace," he informs them.

Charlotte drags a hand down her face. "Well, it doesn't matter what you were doing, because you definitely came off as a stalker!"

His eyes suddenly widen in alarm. "Wait, I did?"

"To Lydia and I, yes. To Allison, no, because she is obviously spellbound by whatever love-potion you've given her."

Stiles stifles a laugh and Scott beams. "She is?"

She looks at him in bewilderment. "Why am I still friends with you?" His smile still doesn't falter.

Stiles rolls his eyes at his friend's behaviour. "Okay, you start," he tells her.

"Before I begin, I brought something with me." Charlotte reaches into her bag and slowly pulls out a bone. She grins at Scott's deadpanned expression.

Stiles loudly laughs. "Oh, my God."

She chucks the bone out the bedroom door and waves a hand at him. "Go fetch, Scott," she demands.

Stiles looks from the bone, to Charlotte, then to Scott who is currently sporting a dark glare. He could honestly rival Derek. The boy with the buzzcut breaks into fits of laughter the second he locks eyes with her. Scott sighs and finally smiles. "You've wanted to do that for a long time, haven't you?"

"Oh, since the very beginning. Okay, so, Scott, you probably didn't see the beforehand of your stalker attack..." He sends a playful glare her way. "But Allison had a bow and arrow."

"... Okay?"

"Not only does she know how to shoot said bow and arrow, but you should've seen the arrowhead she used. It set off an explosion when it hit the tree. Like, fireworks, blinding eyes explosion." Scott and Stiles' jaws drop. "And to top it off, she said she found it in her garage. And apparently, her dad is a well-known weapons dealer. Legal weapons dealer."

Scott nods. "Oh, I knew the last past. Good cover, right?"

Charlotte hums in response. "So what do you think about the first bit?"

"Very concerning!" Stiles exclaims. "Obviously concerned over here!"

She points to him in agreement. "And that was my very reaction."

Scott shrugs, not seeming to understand the gravity of the revelation. "So she can shoot a bow and arrow."

"Scott, didn't you say the night when you and Derek were attacked by the hunters, there was an arrow that blinded you? That stopped you for long enough that they could shoot an arrow into your arm?"

His eyes widen in horror as he finally connects the dots. "Oh, my fucking God!"

"Exactly," his friends simultaneously say.

Charlotte sighs. "Okay, that's my debrief. Stiles and Scott, go."

Stiles clears his throat. "So we tailed Jackson, and by the way, totally understand why you didn't want to come. Anyways, we found him and his car broken down with Allison's father helping him fix it."

Her jaw drops. There's been too many surprises today for her heart to handle. "Allison's father was helping him?" she repeats incredulously.

Scott nods. "He thinks Jackson is the second Beta."

"Hang on, second Beta as in Derek's the first Beta?" Both boys nod in response. "And second Beta as in they don't think you're the second Beta?" Scott once again nods.

"Exactly," Stiles confirms. "The Argents think Jackson is Scott."

"Oh, shit," she whispers. Then her head turns back to the werewolf. "Wait, how do you know this?"

Stiles turns to the boy in question, his eyes narrowing. "Yeah. How do you know this?"

Scott looks down to the floor as he gathers up the courage to tell them what had happened the prior evening. "Derek kinda visited me last night." Their eyes widen in shock. "... With Peter."

"I'm sorry, the Peter who was definitely about to kill me last night?" Charlotte asks loudly. Scott hesitantly nods his head. She heavily sighs.

"See, told you Derek was gonna be alive," Stiles says with a smile. "Oh, and I mentioned to Scott this morning about what happened... Although you didn't mention anything about Peter." Stiles' eyes squint and Scott smiles sheepishly. "So that's where you went after the game..."

"Yeah. During the game, I heard Kate and Allison's dad talking in the bleachers. I think they noticed the marks on the back of Jackson's neck 'cause she asked, 'Can you get turned by a scratch?'"

"'It's like you turned sixteen and someone bought you a Porsche when they should have started you out with a nice little Honda... Me, I drive a Porsche,'" Stiles recites, purposefully lowering his voice to mimic the original words.

Charlotte snorts. "Whittewhore?"

"Had to remember it for you."

"Made my day." He proudly grins. "So in conclusion, Kate thinks Jackson was scratched by the Alpha, is a Beta along with Derek to said Alpha, who is now discovered to be Peter, yet Jackson isn't a werewolf, and he psychologically abused you," she points to Scott who nods, "Because he actually wants to become the third Beta?"

After a minute of processing her words, the boys nod.

Charlotte Martin groans. "Great. We are so fucked."

»»———-　　———-««

"Thanks for letting me stay over. It's just kinda hard when Lyds and Mom don't know exactly why I'm so scared to be alone."

Stiles gives her a sympathetic smile. "But didn't Peter say that he didn't want to kill you?"

"Yep. But then he added, 'Unless you give me a reason too,'" Charlotte mocks the man in a deep voice.

Stiles sighs. "We'll be okay," he attempts to reassure her. "Plus, if he's going to kill anyone it's gonna be Kate, Allison's mom or dad, or Allison herself."

Charlotte smiles and pats his shoulder. "That really helps."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really."

She struggles to comprehend how he didn't hear the sarcasm coating her words. One in disbelief and the other wearing a large smile, the pair walk down the stairs in the hunt for ice-cream and chocolate sauce. Charlotte reaches the freezer, only to look back to see Stiles pause in the doorframe of the dining room. She shuts the door and joins him to find his father at the table and reading through a bunch of paperwork.

"Watcha doing, Dad?"

Noah Stilinski looks up. "Oh, hey kids. Work."

"Anything we can help with?"

"If one of you could get me an ounce of whiskey, that would help."

Charlotte immediately turns to her best friend and firmly shakes her head. "Stiles, absolutely not, you know he's sober." Her best friend hesitates as he seriously considers her words. Then he wanders off and returns a few seconds later with a glass and bottle of alcohol. She shakes her head in disappointment. "This is low," she mutters. 

Stiles sits opposite to his dad and motions the girl to take the chair beside him. She reluctantly follows. "Any leads?"

Charlotte reaches forward to grab a piece of paper but winces when the Sheriff slaps her hand away. "Ow..."

He sighs and looks back over to them with a smile. "You know I can't discuss that with you." He points to the bottle as he says, "Not too much."

Stiles begins to fill the glass, then hesitates once more, before continuing to pour the amber liquor. Charlotte's eyes narrow. "Stiles," she hisses.

He ignores her as he hands the man the glass. "There you go, Dad."

The girl places her head in her hands when Noah doesn't notice that he's drinking a glass of whiskey filled to the brim. A few seconds later, the glass is put on the table - empty. "Derek Hale would be a whole hale of a lot- Hale of a lot...?" He slurs out and Charlotte bites her lip to stop a laugh.

"Hell of a lot?" she corrects. Stiles grins.

"Hell. Yes, Charles. He would be a hell of a lot easier to catch if we could get an actual picture of him."

The teenagers look at him disbelievingly. "Hold on, Sheriff, how do you not have a picture of him?" she questions in confusion. "Hasn't he been wanted for murder... what is it now, twice?"

"It's so weird... Every time we tried to get a mugshot, it was like two laser beams were pointing at the camera."

He pulls a photo out from the pile spread across the table and Stiles eagerly snatches it. Derek stares at the camera, however, a bright white flash covers where his face should have been. Charlotte looks to her best friend. He raises his eyebrows in wonder. "Werewolf eyes?" he whispers. She shrugs and nods. "Nice."

"God... That ounce hit me like a brick. And I have said way too much. If either of you repeat any of that-"

"Don't worry, it's just us! Your son and almost daughter. We aren't gonna say anything, Sheriff, promise." Stiles nods at her words and they both give him comfortingly smiles.

The man sighs in response and Stiles picks up a report to share it with his friend. "The thing is, they're all connected," he begins to ramble. He's clearly taken their promise seriously. "I mean the bus driver that got killed? He was an Insurance Investigator assigned to the Hale house fire."

Charlotte's eyes widen considerably and reads a line aloud. "'Terminated under suspicion of fraud.'"

"Exactly."

"Who else?"

"The video store clerk who got his throat slashed? Convicted felon with a history of arson."

The teens lock eyes with each other and realise that they're both thinking the same thing. Stiles continues to flick through photographs from autopsies, whilst Charlotte reads through various reports and documents. "What about the two guys?" the boy questions. "The guys who were killed in the woods the other day?"

"Priors all over their records including-"

"Arson," they finish in cohesion.

"Maybe they all had something to do with the fire..." Stiles adds. His eyes light up and she groans in frustration. "... Another shot, Dad?"

"No, no," Stilinski quickly denies. "No more."

"Dad, come on! You work really hard, all right?"

He glares at his best friend and she throws her head back in defeat. They might as well go down together. "You deserve it," she says through her teeth.

"Oh, my God, I'm going to have such a hangover."

"You mean, you're gonna have such a good night's sleep!" Stiles exclaims. She hands him the empty glass, and he makes quick work at topping it up with the alcohol.

"See you in hell, Stilinski," Charlotte mutters.

Stiles arches a brow at her. "Next week?"

"How about in a few hours?"

"Sounds more realistic."

»»———-　　———-««

"There's just so many questions!"

"Like what, Dad?"

"Like, if Derek wanted to kill everyone involved in the fire, then why start with his sister? She had nothing to do with it, right? So why make it look like some kinda animal did it?" The pair of teens share another look before focusing back to the older man. "When that cougar ended up in the parking lot that night, I checked with animal control. You know the instances of wild animal reports were up seventy percent over the past few months? It's like they're going crazy, running out of the woods... I don't know."

"Just like that night when we were looking for the body," Charlotte mutters the boy. Stiles slowly nods in agreement. "Or maybe something's scaring them out," she speaks up so the Sheriff can hear.

He nods. "You know, I miss talking to you, Stiles," he smiles at his son.

Charlotte looks down, knowing she shouldn't be here for this moment. "I'm gonna go upstairs," she whispers to her friend. "Night, Sheriff." She waves and he smiles.

"I gotta make a call, Dad," Stiles tries to opt out of the conversation.

But she hurries out before she can hear the rest. She lies down on Stiles' bed and waits for him to return, thinking over the terrible decision they had made tonight. It would most likely haunt her for the rest of her life with guilt. Five minutes later, the boy walks inside the room with a frown. Charlotte quickly sits up, her eyes filled with concern. "Hey, you okay?"

Stiles flops down next to her and stares at the ceiling on his back. "He said 'I miss your mom.'"

She sighs and turns onto her side to look at him. "You don't have to talk about it."

"I just miss her," he whispers. A single tear rolls down his cheek.

Charlotte sits up. She knows how much he doesn't like to talk about Claudia Stilinski, so she begins trying to distract him. "Should we call Scott? Then order ice-cream?" Before he can respond, her phone rings. "Ah, speak of the dog." Once receiving a small nod from Stiles that it's ok to answer, she clicks the accept button and places the call onto speakerphone. "Scootteroo! What do you want this fine evening?"

"How do you know I want something? Never mind... It's Peter. Mom's on a date with him, and I need you and Stiles to stop it from happening."

"Not even going to touch on the first part..." Stiles answers. "Okay, where do you need us?"

»»———-　　———-««

After a rather excessively long argument with the owner of the car, Charlotte Martin drives the Jeep along the road toward where Scott had said Melissa was heading. She glances to the boy and grins. "Oh, don't sulk, dude, I haven't crashed it yet."

He hums. "Exactly! Yet." Her smile widens and continues driving until they spot the familiar vehicle up ahead. "There! Go, go, go." Pressing on the gas pedal a little firmer, the car shoots forward and heads straight toward the back of Melissa McCall's. "Careful..." Stiles warns apprehensively.

The Jeep makes contact with the car in front, then screeches to a stop. Charlotte's head snaps over to him as she exclaims, "How do I be careful about hitting a car?"

They watch Melissa open her door and jump out. She looks extremely pissed off. Charlotte grimaces and hops out the Jeep, Stiles following suit. "Oh, are you kidding me?" the woman shrieks. "Charlotte!"

Said girl breathes a sigh and looks to her best friend beside her. "You definitely should have driven," she mutters. She plasters a smile onto her face as she turns back to the woman in feigned surprise. "Mel?"

"Yes!"

"This is crazy... Wow. What a coincidence, huh?"

"Ha. Ha. Very funny."

"I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened! I mean, you guys just came out of nowhere-"

"Came out of nowhere? We were parked on the side of the road!"

Stiles hides his smile as he and Charlotte watch Peter stand to the side. They both know Scott's somewhere around following along. "How crazy is this? We should probably call the cops you know?"

The blonde-haired girl hastily nods and gestures to Stiles. "Oh, definitely," she agrees. "File a whole accident report and all that."

"I don't think that's necessary," Peter interjects.

Charlotte smiles. "Are you sure? 'Cause I feel so bad."

"Yeah, I think I got a little whiplash," Stiles adds, rubbing his neck. She bites her tongue, but a quiet laugh escapes out from her lips. Melissa turns to her with a glare and she tries to cover it up by coughing, but ultimately miserably fails.

"You hit us!"

"Oh, I don't know, there's definitely something wrong with my neck."

"Mel, come on, there's got to be something I can do to repay you."

"You two can get the hell out of here!"

"Fair enough."

Departing from the two adults, they get back into the Jeep in their respective seats. "You think Scott's got everything handled?" Charlotte questions from the passenger seat as they drive away from the crash site.

"I hope so, 'cause I am not paying for repairs."

"You're not gonna make me do it?"

"Oh, no," he says. Stiles dryly laughs. "Oh, no. Scott McCall is paying for my repairs. His genius idea is paying for my mechanic." Charlotte grins until he adds, "And you are never driving this car again."

"Come on! How are you supposed to hit someone gently?"

"Somehow, Charlotte! Somehow!"

𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴. 𝘔𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘱. 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘥 😭